Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"What we're doing pop culturally is like burning the rain forest. The biodiversity of pop culture is really, really in danger."
- William Gibson
 |
| Dolphin's Hands | ||
| Digital prosthetic for dolphins. |
Once you've found out that dolphins are intelligent enough to perform useful tasks for humanity, what can you pay them with?
| “Oh. Well, if I said it with a small h you’d think I meant humans, wouldn’t you? Potential paranoids, albino crashlanders, boosterspice allergics, people with missing limbs and resistance to transplants — handicapped like that.” “Yah.” “Whereas what I deal with is sentient beings who evolved with minds but with nothing that would serve as hands.” “O-oh. Like dolphins?” “Right. Are there dolphins on Down?” “Hell, yes. What else would run our fishing industry?” “You know those things you pay them off in? They look like a squirt-jet motorboat motor with two padded metal hands attached.” “The Dolphin’s Hands. Sure. We sell ’em other stuff, tools and sonic things to move fish around, but Dolphin’s Hands are what they mainly need.” “I make them...”
“Well, don’t you see that there must be Handicapped species all over the galaxy? Minds but no hands. I tell you, Jilson, it gives me the shivers. For as long as we expand to other stars we’re going to meet more and more handless, toolless, helpless civilizations. Sometimes we won’t even recognize them. What are we going to do about them?” |
| Technovelgy from Handicap,
by Larry Niven. Published by Galaxy Science Fiction in 1967 Additional resources -
|
This is a precursor to the idea of Jones, the cyborg dolphin from William Gibson's 1981 short story Johnny Mnemonic.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Handicap
More Ideas
and Technology by Larry Niven
Tech news articles related to Handicap
Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven
| Can 'Tactical Umbrellas' Shield One From Drones |
| Chinese Aircar Light And Airy, Not For Blade Runners |
| The Morphing Wheel And The Smartwheel |
| Transporting Antimatter |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.'
'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
'Michel Ardan, as a Frenchman, was declared chief cook, an important function, which raised no rival.'
'Sapiro’s computer just kept dialing at random, hanging up on humans, until it got a fellow computer of the same type as itself.'
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'
